The British government announced on Monday that it would start talks with French energy giant EDF for the construction of a new nuclear power plant, Sizewell C, in Suffolk on the east side of England.
The public authorities do not exclude participating in the financing to allow this plant to emerge, according to a press release from the Department of Business which unveils several measures to green the British economy. The government “is evaluating the possibilities to make it possible to invest in at least one nuclear power plant” by the end of this legislature, that is to say 2024, it is specified.
This project at Sizewell is estimated according to the British press at 20 billion pounds (21.8 billion euros). London specifies that the project will have to be financially balanced and obtain regulatory green lights, before a final investment decision is made.
25,000 jobs created
EDF had announced in May that it had filed an application to build this new plant, a file that was delayed due to the pandemic. With a total power of 3.2 GW, Sizewell C will be able to supply electricity to 6 million homes and its construction should create 25,000 jobs, estimated the French group at the time.
At the Sizewell site, there are two power plants, Sizewell A opened in the 1960s and closed in 2006, and Sizewell B, opened in 1995 and still in operation.
The power station is designed as a quasi-replica of that of Hinkley Point located in Somerset (South West England) and should be developed like the latter by EDF alongside the Chinese CGN. This should make it possible, according to EDF, to reduce the risks and costs for this new plant.
The government in its statement does not mention CGN, which is expected to be a minority partner in the project alongside EDF, even as economic relations between London and Beijing have been strained since the decision to exclude Huawei from the 5G network in the country. . Hinkley Point C, validated by the UK government in 2016 and is the only nuclear power plant under construction in the country.
Nuclear supplies around 20% of the country’s electricity and the government wants to maintain this share in order to achieve carbon neutrality in 2050, which requires new projects to take over from British nuclear power plants that have closed or are about to reach the end of its life.
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